Karnataka Legislative Council chariman DH Shankarmurthy to become governor soon

Bengaluru: Karnataka State Legislative Council Chairman D.H. Shankarmurthy is likely to be nominated as governor soon. He told Deccan Chronicle that he, along with other senior state BJP leaders, met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi on Thursday. Mr Singh told the delegation that the government is considering his name for the post of governor.

Presently, three to four states do not have full-time governors. In all probability, Mr Shankarmurthy may be appointed as governor of Madhya Pradesh. "I have no personal choice of any state. I have given my consent to work in any state allotted by the union government. I will wait for an official communication from the Union government", he added.

This meeting has assumed importance as the national BJP unit had cleared Mr Shankarmurthy's name for the gubernatorial post. Now, the ball is in the Union government’s court which has to issue a letter of appointment in due consultation with the President of India, Mr Pranab Mukherjee.

Mr Shankarmurthy's name had been doing the rounds for the last six months for the governor's post. Though, the Centre wanted to appoint him as the governor of Tamil Nadu, there was opposition from the ruling AIADMK in view of the dispute over sharing of water between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for many decades. It would be difficult for the governor to intervene in the matter if he belonged to Karnataka. On this ground, the Union government dropped that idea.

The council chairman had been part of the erstwhile Jan Sangh for many decades and was close to former prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee. He had served as higher education minister in the BJP-JD(S) coalition government in 2006-07 and enjoys goodwill with both state and national leaders of the party.

Mr Shankaramurthy hails from Shivamogga district to which State BJP President B.S. Yeddyurappa and Opposition Leader in the Legislative Council K S Eshwarappa too belongs.